August 20, 2019

 

The problems with scientific integrity in the Trump administration continue. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, since taking office, this administration has launched more than 100 attacks on science  more than the George W. Bush administration amassed over its two four-year terms.

A recent Government Accounting Office review found that although all of nine federal agencies examined have scientific integrity policies, five of the nine agencies have taken no steps to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the policies. Further,

 

2 agencies have not provided scientific integrity training for staff

1 does not have a scientific integrity official

2 do not have procedures to address alleged violations of their policies

 

In July, the House Science Committee held a hearing to review the GAO report and to discuss Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY)'s Scientific Integrity Act (H.R. 1709). The legislation codifies an Obama administration memorandum on scientific integrity and would give federal scientists the right to share their research with the public, ensure that government communication of science is accurate, and protect science in policy decisions from political interference. The bill also allows federal scientists to share their personal opinions as informed experts, and prohibits any employee from censoring or manipulating scientific findings.

 

In a July USA Today opinion piece, Tonko and Senate companion bill author Brian Schatz (D-HI) cited examples of troubling suppression and censorship of science by the Trump Administration:

 

“ a Politico investigation revealed that the political leadership at the U.S. Department of Agriculture was refusing to publicize dozens of scientific reports on the effects of climate change. Months earlier, news coverage revealed that the same political figures had been demanding that agency scientists tag their credible, peer-reviewed research as “preliminary” until USDA had “formally disseminated” it….

 

Federal scientists have been prohibited from speaking about climate change in public or at scientific conferences. Climate data has been scrubbed from many U.S. government websites. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were banned from using the words “evidence-based” and “science-based” in budget documents, according to an unidentified analyst quoted by The Washington Post. ….

 

Political appointees blocked publishing of a report on dangerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a chemical found in drinking water and polluted groundwater, and they suppressed another report on the health risks of formaldehyde. To this day, the formaldehyde report has still not been released. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine were ordered to stop research on health risks for communities living near surface coal mining sites. And at the urging of the chemical industry, the Environmental Protection Agency scrapped its own recommended ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide proven to impair brain development in young children.

 

The vast majority of House Democrats -- 213 members -- are co-sponsors of the bill. The bill has no Republican co-sponsors. Rep. Tonko said that he looks forward to Republicans joining the bill. The Senate companion bill (S. 775) has 10 cosponsors, again all Democrats.

 

Separately, in July, the House Natural Resources Committee held another hearing on scientific integrity in the Interior Department with testimony from Clement, Andrew Rosenberg of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Daren Bakst of the conservative Heritage Foundation and Maria Caffrey, a former University of Colorado, Boulder scientist whose report on sea level rise was censored by the National Park Service.